Trust and Estate Disputes

Trust Disputes

Our specialist contentious trust solicitors act for professional trustees, protectors and beneficiaries in both onshore and offshore litigation.

We regularly advise on:

• disputes concerning the validity of trusts, including allegations of mistake, sham or lack of capacity
• trustee removal claims involving allegations of breach of trust
• applications by trustees to vary the terms of a trust
• applications for directions or blessings
• issues concerning the disclosure of trust documents.

Many trust disputes involve assets in multiple jurisdictions. We regularly act with intermediaries in major offshore jurisdictions including Jersey, Guernsey, BVI, Liechtenstein, Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Wills and Inheritance Disputes

We act for trustees, executors, personal representatives and for individuals claiming against estates, trustees or other parties

Our specialist will and estate dispute solicitors regularly act in complex and multi-jurisdictional claims, often involving allegations of fraud or undue influence.

Court of Protection Disputes

Disputes around the care of loved ones who lack capacity and seeking to ensure that their best interests are protected can be challenging and distressing. Our expert Court of Protection disputes lawyers are well placed to assist you in navigating these difficult times.

We bring and defend applications in the Court of Protection including disputes over an appointment of a deputy or attorney, disputes around a vulnerable person’s mental capacity, challenging gifts made by a deputy or attorney, disagreements arising in relation to statutory wills, challenging personal welfare decisions and disputes arising in relation to whether the deputy or attorney is acting in the best interests of a vulnerable person.

Examples Of Recent Cases

• Acting in a proprietary estoppel claim for our client against his parents in relation to farming land and the family business
• Acting for the beneficiaries in multijurisdictional trust dispute challenging the exercise of the trustees’ discretion to appoint assets out of trust
• Successfully defending a challenge to the validity of an English will on the grounds that the testator could not have known and approved the contents of the will because she did not speak, read or understand English.
• Acting for a client in a highly acrimonious dispute regarding his father’s estate involving allegations of destruction of a will, forgery and the concealment of overseas assets.
• Advising a client in relation to a professional negligence claim against the solicitor who drafted her husband’s will, an application for rectification of that will on the basis of mistake, and a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
• Advising a Guernsey trust company in a cross border investigation into issues surrounding the settlor and main beneficiary of a family trust. The claims included allegations of undue influence and the misappropriation of assets including extremely valuable artwork.
• Assisting a beneficiary of a substantial trust in relation to the disclosure of information about the trust and also advising on allegations of breach of trust and proceedings for removal of the trustees.
• Acting on behalf of a trustee in bankruptcy where the bankrupt had divested himself of assets, including through offshore trust structures before making himself bankrupt in the face of significant tax liabilities due to the failure of aggressive tax avoidance schemes.
• Advising a Panamanian trustee company of a Cayman trust in a complex piece of multi-jurisdictional trust/fraud litigation relating to the transfer of assets from another off-shore trust.
• Acting in relation to a challenge to the validity of three wills made after the deceased’s diagnosis with brain cancer and investigating the misappropriation of assets prior to his death.
• Advising the children of the deceased in relation to a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, in circumstances where their father had made a death bed will cutting them out of his estate.